Draft:German social movement

The German Social Movement (Deutsch-Soziale Bewegung, GSM) was a fascist and nationalist political group based in Wiesbaden during the German Federal Republic. Founded in 1951 and disestablishmentlved in 1970, the group was led by former SS member and far-right activist Karl-Heinz Priester.

Previously
Between october 22th - 25th 1950, the "Fronte Universitario di Azione Nationale" (Universitary front for national action, FUAN), which was the student branch of the Movimento Soziale Italiano (Italian Social Movement, ISM) organized the "European National Youth Congress" in Roma.

There, Karl-Heinz Priester met diverse members of european fascist organizations, including Per Engdahl, at the time leader of the New Swedish Movement (Nysvenska rörelsen, NSM). The creation of this network began already during the European Social Movement founding Congress in Malmö, between may 12th - 14th. Their goal was to achieve "white european unity".

Led by Engdahl, the administration council of the ESM also included french fascist writer Maurice Bardèche, Augusto de Marsanich from the ISM and Priester, who took the role of "german spokesperson" for the ESM.

Histoire et objectifs
The GSM was founded on march 29th 1951 in Frankfurt am Main as a german section of the ESM. Its members were mostly from Hesse and Lower Saxony, but other groups were to be found in Darmstadt and Cologne. Politically, both ESM and GSM based their program on 10 points debated during the many conferences organized. This program aimed for example to the abolition of democracy and its replacement by a "corporatist society"

In all of this, the role of "nations" was to defend "western european culture" against the "communist danger". The purpose of this being the building of an "european empire made out of equal and independant nations".

From 1951 to 1957, the GSM published "Die Europäische Nationale (The European National). Interrupted in 1958, the publication resumed in 1959 under the title "Der Weg nach vorn" (The Way Forwards). The magazine Nation Europa, which Priester cofounded and coedited was originally chosen as the GSM public organ, but the other was preferred.

From fall 1952, the GSM negociates with the German Community of August Haußleiter. During the winter, the GSM joins the GC. But when the latter is forbidden in Lower Saxony, the GSM wasn't affected as an indpendant organization and continued its development.

From march 1953, the GSM actively took part to discussions about a "National union". Those discussions came to the adhesion of the GSM to the electoral alliance "Dachverband der Nationalen Sammlung" (Gathering of national unions, DNS), in which many small parties were represented, not to mention the GSM, DG and the German Block. For the 1953 federal elections, the GSM sent a list on july 19th, but withdraw from the DNS before the elections and declared itself "non-partisan".

Through Priester, the GSM had excellent relations to Francisco Franco and supported arab aspirations to independance from colonial powers. According to Kurt P. Tauber, Priester and the GSM also had close ties to the egyptian authorities; to illustrate this, some used to consider Priester as an european representant for the Arab League.

Looking forward to the 1961 federal elections, Priester began to gather all right wing parties in West-Germany under the slogan "Union of the faithfuls to the Reich" (Sammlung der Reichstreuen). His aim was to found at Pentcost 1960 an "emergency community of faithful associations to the Reich". In the middle of the building in april 1960, Priester dies of a stroke.

According to Hans Frederik, Priester and his GSM were controlled and backed by the United States, because Priester himself temporarily worked at the service of the CIA.

With his death, the GSM falls into insignificance. After two years of fog, it is taken over in april 1962 by Hermann Schimmel from Cologne. He published "Der Weg nach vorn" until the 1970s. In 1969, the GSM reportedly counted around 100 members. Even though it was never technically disestablished, it was mentionned at last in 1977 in a "Nationalist dossier" as a small german section of the ESM, nowadays supporting the German People's union.

Literature

 * Hans Frederik (éd.) : NPD – danger à droite ?, Archives politiques Verlag Munich-Inning 1966
 * Stoess, Richard ; Du nationalisme à la protection de l’environnement ; Opladen 1980